Analysis and control of complex collaborative design systems

This paper presents a novel method for modelling the complexity of collaborative design systems based on its analysis and proposes a solution to reducing complexity and improving performance of such systems. The interaction and interfacing properties among many components of a complex design system are analysed from different viewpoints and then a complexity model for collaborative design is established accordingly. In order to simplify complexity and improve performance of collaborative design, a general solution of decomposing a whole system into sub-systems and using unified interface mechanism between them has been proposed. This proposed solution has been tested with a case study. It has been shown that the proposed solution is meaningful and practical

Design Distribution and Evaluation Model for Collaborative Design Chain

A collaborative design chain incorporates the different design activities performed by various design teams that may be located at different geographical locations. In a collaborative design chain, the different parts of a product can be designed by different design teams in a collaborative way. There exist different ways for distributing the different parts to the multiple design teams. If different ways are used for distributing the different part, the time for completing the design and the final functions of the product may vary. In this research, a design evaluation model for evaluating the collaborative design chain is presented. The presented new model is aimed at finding the best way for distributing the different parts to the suitable design teams such that the designed functional value of the product can be maximized. Also, the design cost composed of design operation cost and design communication cost in collaborative design is minimized. An optimized design distribution and evaluation model is presented by maximizing the total design value which is defined as the designed functional value minus the design operation cost and the design communication cost. Implementation and test results are presented

Distributed CAD for supporting Internet collaborative design

10.1016/j.cad.2003.09.003CAD Computer Aided Design369759-760CAID